052. Have specialised qualifications for Infant teachers
Sometimes it’s good to change a long held tradition. Anyone working in infant classes will see that their job is completely different to that of someone in another class. The way the curriculum is going, with Aistear encompassing much of what infant teachers do these days, is it time to simply use infants as a […]
051. Cluster OTs and SLTs to Schools
Special Educational Needs in Irish schools are a total disaster so this idea isn’t going to fix it. However, it might be a decent step in the right direction. When a child requires OT or SLT support, they join a very long waiting list and when they get an appointment, it’s generally during school, and […]
049. Provide specialised teachers for Irish
Really, we have to face it: we are failing at teaching Irish. We have a few passionate teachers who can teach it well, but overall, there’s something very wrong when most people come out of 14 years of education unable to string a sentence in Irish together, yet can almost be fluent in some European […]
048. Abolish the Supplementary Panel
It’s very likely that this post will be liked by most principals and hated by teachers on temporary contracts and nobody else in the middle will care too much. The Supplementary Panel is a good idea in theory. If you work enough time in a school (or schools) whether that’s subbing or temporary positions, you […]
047. Have properly resourced sub panels
Irish schools do not have established substitute panels. I’m not sure how common this is, but it would make a lot of sense of they were to be established. Since the online claims system (OLCS) has been set up, there must be a huge amount of data to establish how many absences per day are […]
045. Diversify the profession
Primary school teaching is most likely one of the least diverse professions in the country. A study in NUIG found that 99% of teachers identified as white and Irish and 90% of teachers identified as Catholic. Looking at the following 1969 video of the UK’s first black headteacher, it seems shameful that 50 years later, […]